The deportation of a D-Company man and an accused in the Bombay blasts gives a push to the probe into the 11-year-old case.

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UDAY MAHURKAR

December 27, 2004

ISSUE DATE: December 27, 2004

UPDATED: January 5, 2012 16:52 IST

IN THE NET: Umarmiya Bukhari (centre) under arrest

Shortly after noon on Friday, March 12, 1993, a series of explosions on carefully targeted highrises shook Mumbai. Eleven years on, the blasts, which claimed 257 lives, stand as the bloodiest terrorist chapter in the country's history.

Though the perpetrators of the perfectly planned explosions had managed to flee the country-some just days earlier, a few others later- there was some good news for the authorities last week.

At the behest of the Gujarat Government, the Centre managed the deportation from Abu Dhabi of Mamumiya Panjumiya alias Umarmiya Bukhari, a key associate of Dawood Ibrahim. Bukhari is alleged to have received weapons, RDX and hand grenades sent by the Dawood gang through a smuggler Mohammed Umar Dosa in a consignment from Dubai.

Official agencies believe the deadly cargo used to shake India's financial capital to its very foundations landed at the coastal village of Ghosabara in Porbandar either in January-end or February 1993, a month before the blasts.

Part of the weapons and ammunition was sent to the D-Company's operatives in Mumbai while some landed with gangsters elsewhere in the country. Bukhari had fled to Dubai around July 1993 after his name figured as one of the transporters of arms and ammunition in the conspiracy.

Significantly, on the third day of his interrogation by the Gujarat Police, Bukhari admitted to his role as the landing agent for the arms consignment sent by the ISI from Karachi on board the vessel Al' Sadabahar to Porbandar. The consignment, according to Bukhari, contained over 200 AK-47 rifles and about 200 pistols but no RDX.

Bukhari is said to have told the police that around the time the weapons and ammunition landed, he was in constant touch with Dawood and his Dubai-based associate Dosa.

He said he was told on the phone by Dosa that he would have to transport "some special consignments" to different places, including Mumbai. Bukhari says his job was to take delivery of the smuggled goods from Mumbai and hand them over to another gang whose job was to take them to further destinations.

Chunilal Kharva, a porter from Porbandar, who carried the gunny bags containing the arms, ammunition and silver slabs from the vessel to four trucks, had earlier pointed to Bukhari's connivance.

In his video recorded statement to the police in 2001, he said, "As usual we were transporting the goods which were in gunny bags. Some seemed to contain rod-like stuff indicating weapons while some had powdered material which one could feel while handling the bags. When I asked Bukhari what the bags contained, he got irritated and told me it was none of my business."

The Gujarat Government has laid out concrete plans to get many other gangsters deported from UAE. Says the state Minister of State for Home Amit Shah: "We are determined to bring to book all those gangsters who have been hiding abroad. We won't rest till we get them."

The next on the list is of course Dosa. He is one of the most important links to the Bombay bomb blasts after Tiger Memon. Memon left India for Dubai on March 11, 1993, just a day before the incident. Dosa left two days earlier. Authorities believe the sudden departures of the two point to their close involvement in the blasts.

For the investigating agencies, Bukhari's arrest has come as a major boost. If Dosa too falls into the Gujarat Police's net, then the probe into the 11-year-old bomb blasts will finally gain some momentum.

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